Wednesday, August 26, 2015

When I first saw pictures of Closet Case Files' new pattern, the Sallie Jumpsuit, I was KEEN. I love jumpsuits and the idea of wearing tip-to-toe cotton jersey. And I knew just the jersey I fancied - a beautiful slub black cotton one from my favourite Organic Textile Company.

Sadly for me spaghetti straps look heinous on me, but I was really excited about the kimono style top. When I'd downloaded the PDF pattern and stuck it together, I started wondering about the trousers. I'm not much for 70s style, and I very rarely wear heeled shoes, so I worried about the long wide trousers. I thought I'd get more use out of a tapered style, and one of my favourite things

So I had a go at putting them together. I followed the length of the rise from crotch to waist on the Sallie pattern, extending the Hudson pattern (about 4" I think) to match. From there they fitted together really well, being the same size at the waist. I left off the cuffs at the bottom, as I quite like them as they are, and don't want it too look too sporty.

Adjustments I would make next time would be to lower the armholes by 1/2" and lengthen the pants rise by 1" for a bit more space... I may have had a few wedgies wearing these guys - but nothing that has stopped me wearing this twice this week!

Thanks to the big v-neck back it's easy to get these on and off, phew! I see from these pics that the bum is bagging after two wears and I don't even care! I really really love this jumpsuit. I'd like to make it again with the adjustments, but I can't imagine doing it in any other colour or in a print - I feel like that might be too much... but maybe if I found some super 80s-style printed jersey, that could be the business!

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Part of my pressie for my sister's birthday was this cat cushion! She's brilliant at choosing meaningful gifts, and I am hopeless, but I did want to give her something I'd made this year. I had this fabric I showed in my last post, and I added more cats to have enough for a cushion pad.

It was fairly simple to make - I used a 16" square cushion pad, and cut the fabric to the same size. Then I tacked this (ready made) piping to the wrong side of the cat fabric, and then sewed each envelope closure back one at at time, all with about a 4/8" seam allowance. The back fabric is from my mum's stash, and was a happy match with ALL TEH KITTIES.

In situ - but don't get comfortable kitties, you're going home with Jessie!

Sunday, August 9, 2015

This is the A-Frame Skirt by Blueprints for Sewing, a site I only found about a week ago and which I've been really enjoying. (I came to it through Beyond Measure, another new-to-me and super blog. Where will it all end?!?) I loved the samples of this skirt on the site, and the possibilities for colour blocking. I chose the A-line version 2, and cut it out in one evening and then sewed it up in a couple of hours.

The instructions are good and simple, and I've now done my first lapped zipper - I'm pretty happy with how neat it came out. I made the pattern in size C with no alterations, and the only thing I added were the buttons on the front - the fabric I chose, although I love it, doesn't really show off the fun pocket panels on the front, so I thought the buttons might help draw attention to them. Plus, I'm starting to think that anything I can put buttons on, I'm going to.

The fabric is really beautiful - it's a crossweave cotton from the Organic Textile Company. It has so many colours showing up from all the different threads, though the overall impression is of a dusky pink - different from the more cream appearance on the website, but I'm really happy with it. I love the fabrics they sell at Organic Textile Co!

I like this skirt a lot, and can see it being useful - I think it'll look nice with some bright tights when it gets colder. I'd like to make it again, and this time use different fabrics like Taylor's done on her samples, to really show off the nice construction lines in this lovely pattern.

I've also started dipping a toe into block printing, inspired a lot by Marilla Walker who gives some great tips on her blog. I ordered some Speedball screen printing fabric inks from Handprinted, which seems a great UK-based resource for fabric printing. I carved some shapes, and cats, out of some Speedycarve which I'd bought years back, and then let loose on some cream and white cottons.

These were printed with acrylics and a Golden fabric medium - I haven't yet set and washed them, so it'll be interesting to see how permanent this method is.

Swimmin' cats!

I found getting the larger stamp of the cat to print consistently really difficult - it's going to take a lot of practise to make it less amateur looking. I'd like to make some bags and cushion covers from these fabrics eventually, and the handprinted look will hopefully be part of the charm, but they could do with being a little less "charming", perhaps!

This last pic was from accidentally inverting in Photoshop - I'm loving it though, and want to try some white on black cotton next and see if I can recreate this!

Sunday, August 2, 2015

Hello! I'm back with another Brumby skirt. This time I made up a Small, as the Medium even with 1" taken off was too big - this is now on the snug side, so I'm not there yet - I think next time, a S with slight smaller seam allowances will be perfect.

I bought this pretty fabric from John Lewis - again, why?? It's totally not the kind of colours or pattern I wear! I love the two tone print on my last Brumby - I must stick with those from now on!! Plus colour blocking, and plain fabric with nice weaves.

Anyway, here is the result. I'm happy with the construction and my exposed zipper went in much neater thanks to glueing it down first, a tip I got from House of Pinheiro.

Better zipper! Although needed to come up a bit further I think.

I had some fabric left over, so I made a dress for this cat that dropped by.